Chapter 5: The World in Retrograde Summary and Analysis

The work of Galileo Galilei during the Renaissance was a symbol of the importance of observation and experiment. Legend had it that he dropped two metal balls of different sizes off the tower of Pisa to illustrate that all objects fell at the same rate of speed. He did his work under much duress as he was persecuted by the Church for the conflicts his science had with religion. After studying medicine and loafing for several years, Galileo was appointed as a professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa and later a chair of mathematics at the University of Padua in Venice where he became a respected scholar and scientist.

Driven by debt, Galileo needed something to elevate his career from the ordinary to the extraordinary. It was then that he invented...